The invention concerns overvoltage protection equipment. This application claims priority under 35 USC §119 to German Patent Application No. 10 2011 053 415.6, filed on Sep. 8, 2011 with the German Patent and Trademark Office, the contents are herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Overvoltage protection equipment, in particular Type 1, are used in efficient electrical power grids. This overvoltage protection equipment represents coarse protection in the building feed and will, for example, draw off the stored energy of lightning and can limit the remaining residual stress to a value less than 1300 to 6000 V. This stress is displayed due to a reference current surge. This reference current surge exhibits a current of 50 or 100 kA, for example, with a 10/350-μsec pulse shape. Another pulse shape is, by way of example, the 8/20 μsec pulse shape. Overvoltage protection is thereby ensured for potential rectification, in which the maximum voltage difference between feeds at a specified protection level must not be exceeded. For this purpose, varistors and spark gaps have been used in the past. The advantage of spark gaps is in the low operating arc voltage, which defines the protection level with simultaneously high surge current capacity. This advantage is, however, associated with a decided drawback. Spark gaps also exhibit, based on the low operating arc voltage, poor ability to limit and extinguish the secondary currents. Typically, the spark gaps first go out when the current decreases below the so-called holding current, e.g. at zero passage of an alternating-current voltage. For this purpose, this property leads to tripping series-connected fuses and therefore compromising the availability of a protected system, because now the fuses first have to be replaced.
To resolve this problem, in the past, spark gaps were provided with an elevated operating arc voltage, which thereby are better for suppressing the secondary current at the site. This increase is achieved by cooling the arc or by means of a high pressure build-up in the spark gap or by arc multiplication. These spark gaps, however, exhibit a drawback, in that they exhibit severely increased power conversion, which is an obstacle to the small sizes required. A further disadvantage is that these spark gaps are comparatively expensive.